From the American Southwest to India’s Deccan Plateau – John M. Fritz at Hampi Vijayanagara
Illustrated lecture by Dr. George Michell, architectural historian who has worked extensively in the Deccan region, beginning some 50 years ago with a doctoral thesis on early Chalukya temples. His collaborative publications with Dr. Fritz include Hampi Vijayanagara, the popular guidebook issued by the Deccan Heritage Foundation. Michell’s most recent publication is the profusely illustrated Temple of Deccan India.
Programme
December 2024
The late Dr John M. Fritz was the first American archaeologist to survey the ruins of Hampi Vijayanagara. Trained at the University of Chicago as an anthropologist with a special interest in prehistoric, Native American sites in New Mexico and Arizona, Fritz brought an entirely new perspective to South Asian urban studies. Together with Dr. George Michell, Fritz directed a team of volunteer architects and archaeologists to investigate the meaning of Hampi’s city plan. Building on more than twenty years of fieldwork during the 1980s and 1990s, he concluded that the Hindu god Rama dominated the layout of the Vijayanagara’s Royal Centre by acting as a mediator in the everyday activities and ceremonial life of the Vijayanagara rulers. It is this innovative interpretation that Michell will discuss in his illustrated lecture.
Speaker(s)
Dr George Michell
George Michell is a world authority on South Asian architecture, and a founder-trustee of the Deccan Heritage Foundation. He is amongst the most distinguished architectural scho... Read More
Venue
C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium, IIC main building
